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David 

Starr 

Jordan 


CALIFORNIA 


AND  THE 


CALIFORNIANS 


'BT^AVID  STARR  JORT>AN 

Tresident  of 

Leland  Stanford  Junior  University, 


San  Francisco 

The  IVbitaker  and  Ray  Company 

(Incorporated) 

1899 


^ 


Copyright  1898 

by 

Houghton.  Mifflin  &  Company 

Reprinted  by  Permission  of 

Mr.  Walter  H.  Page 

Editor  of  the  Atlantic  Monthly 

by 

The  Whltaker  &  Ray  Company 

1899 


PREFATORY  NOTE. 


This  essay  was  first  published  in  the  Atlantic 
Monthly  for  November,  i8g8.  It  is  here  reprinted 
by  the  kind  permission  of  the  publishers  of  the 
Atlantic  Monthly,  Houghton^  Mifflin  6f  Co,,  and 
of  the  editor,  Mr,  Walter  H,  Page. 


29o>;34 


CALIFORNIA 

AND  THE  CALIFORNIANS 

BY 

DAVID  STARR  JORDAN 

PRESIDENT  OF 
STANFORD   UNIVERSITY 

The  Californian  loves  his  state  because  his  state 
loves  him,  and  he  returns  her  love  with  a  fierce  affection 
that  men  of  other  regions  are  slow  to  understand.  Hence  Sties* 
he  is  impatient  of  outside  criticism.  Those  who  do  not 
love  California  cannot  understand  her,  and,  to  his  mind, 
their  shafts,  however  aimed,  fly  wide  of  the  mark.  Thus, 
to  say  that  California  is  commercially  asleep,  that  her 
industries  are  gambling  ventures,  that  her  local  politics 
is  in  the  hands  of  professional  pickpockets,  that  her  small 
towns  are  the  shabbiest  in  Christendom,  that  her  saloons 
control  more  constituents  than  her  churches,  that  she  is 
the  slave  of  corporations,  that  she  knows  no  such  thing  as 
public  opinion,  that  she  has  not  yet  learned  to  distinguish 
enterprise  from  highway  robbery,  nor  reform  from  black- 
mail,—all  these  things  and  many  more  the  Californian 
may  admit  in  discussion,  or  may  say  for  himself,  but  he 
does  not  find  them  acceptable  from  others.  They  may  be 
more  or  less  true,  in  certain  times  and  places,  but  the 
conditions  which  have  permitted  them  will  likewise  mend 
them.  It  is  said  in  the  Alps  that  **  not  all  the  vulgar 
people  who  come  to  Chamouny  can  ever  make  Chamouny 

— 5  — 


Characteristics 


Climate 
scenery  and 
freedom. 


aiid  the  ^aiijcrmans.'^ 

vulgar."  For  similar  reasons,  not  all  the  sordid  people 
who  drift  overland  can  ever  vulgarize  California.  Her 
fascination  endures,  whatever  the  accidents  of  population. 

The  charm  of  California  has,  in  the  main,  three 
sources — scenery,  climate,  and  freedom  of  life. 

To  know  the  glory  of  California  scenery,  one  must 
live  close  to  it  through  the  changing  years.  From  Sis- 
kiyou to  San  Diego,  from  Mendocino  to  Mariposa,  from 
Tahoe  to  the  Farallones,  lake,  crag,  or  chasm,  forest, 
mountain,  valley,  or  island,  river,  bay,  or  jutting  head- 
land, every  one  bears  the  stamp  of  its  own  peculiar 
beauty,  a  singular  blending  of  richness,  wildness,  and 
warmth.  Coastwise  everywhere  sea  and  mountains  meet, 
and  the  surf  of  the  cold  Japanese  current  breaks  in  turbu- 
lent beauty  against  tall  "rincones"  and  jagged  reefs  of 
rock.     Slumbering  amid  the  hills  of  the  Coast  Range, 

"  A  misty  camp  of  mountains  pitched  tumultuously," 

lie  golden  valleys  dotted  with  wide-limbed  oaks,  or  smoth- 
ered under  over-weighted  fruit  trees.  Here,  too,  crumble 
to  ruins  the  old  Franciscan  missions,  each  in  its  own  fair 
valley,  passing  monuments  of  California's  first  page  of 
written  history. 

Inland  rises  the  great  Sierra,  with  spreading  ridge 
and  foothill,  like  some  huge,  sprawling  centipede,  its 
granite  back  unbroken  for  a  thousand  miles.  Frost-torn 
peaks,  of  every  height  and  bearing,  pierce  the  blue  wastes 
above.  Their  slopes  are  dark  with  forests  of  noble  pines 
and  giant  sequoias,  the  mightiest  of  trees,  in  whose  silent 
aisles  one  may  wander  all  day  long  and  see  no  sign  of  man. 
Dropped  here  and  there  rest  purple  lakes  which  mark  the 


and  flowers. 


California 

and  the  Californians. 

craters  of  dead  volcanoes,  or  which  swell  the  polished 
basins  where  vanished  glaciers  did  their  last  work.  Through  sunshine 
mountain  meadows  run  swift  brooks  over-peopled  with 
trout,  while  from  the  crags  leap  full-throated  streams,  to 
be  half  blown  away  in  mist  before  they  touch  the  valley 
floor.  Far  down  the  fragrant  cafions  sing  the  green  and 
troubled  rivers,  twisting  their  way  lower  and  lower  to  the 
common  plains.  Even  the  hopeless  stretches  of  alkali 
and  sand,  sinks  of  lost  streams,  in  the  southeastern  coun- 
ties, are  redeemed  by  the  delectable  mountains  that  on  all 
sides  shut  them  in.  Everywhere  the  landscape  seems  to 
swim  in  crystalline  ether,  while  over  all  broods  the  warm 
California  sun.  Here,  if  anywhere,  life  is  worth  living, 
full  and  rich  and  free. 

As  there  is  from  end  to  end  of  California  scarcely 
one  commonplace  mile,  so  from  one  end  of  the  year  to  the 
other  there  is  hardly  a  tedious  day.  Two  seasons  only 
has  California,  but  two  are  enough  if  each  in  its  way  be 
perfect.  Some  have  called  the  climate  "monotonous," 
but  so,  no  doubt,  is  good  health.  In  terms  of  Eastern 
experience,  the  seasons  may  be  defined  as  "late  in  the 
spring  and  early  in  the  fall;" 

"  Haifa  year  of  cloudsand  flowers,  half  a  year  of  dust  and  sky," 

according  to  Bret  Harte.  But  with  the  dust  and  sky 
comes  the  unbroken  succession  of  days  of  sunshine,  the 
dry  invigorating  air,  and  the  boundless  overflow  of  vine 
and  orchard.  Each  season  in  its  turn  brings  its  fill  of  sat- 
isfaction, and  winter  or  summer  we  regret  to  look  forward 
to  change,  because  we  would  not  give  up  what  we  have 
for  the  remembered  delights  of  the  season  that  is  past. 


California 

and  the  Californians. 

If  one  must  choose,  in  all  the  fragrant  California  year  the 
California  best  month  is  June,  for  then  the  air  is  softest,  and  a  touch 
hooda^nd^oid*^  °^  summer's  gold  overlies  the  green  of  winter.  But  Oct- 
age.  ober,  when  the  first  swift  rains 

"  dash  the  whole  long  slope  with  color," 

and  leave  the  clean-washed  atmosphere  so  absolutely 
transparent  that  even  distance  is  no  longer  blife,  has  a 
charm  not  less  alluring. 

So  far  as  man  is  concerned,  the  one  essential  fact  is 
that  he  is  never  the  climate's  slave;  he  is  never 
beleaguered  by  the  powers  of  the  air.  Winter  and  sum- 
mer alike  call  him  out  of  doors.  In  summer  he  is  not 
languid,  for  the  air  is  never  sultry.  In  most  regions  he  is 
seldom  hot,  for  in  the  shade  or  after  nightfall  the  dry  air 
is  always  cool.  When  it  rains,  the  air  may  be  chilly, 
indoors  or  out,  but  it  is  never  cold  enough  to  make  the 
remorseless  base-burner  a  welcome  alternative.  The  habit 
of  roasting  one's  self  all  winter  long  is  unknown  in  Cali- 
fornia. The  old  Californian  seldom  built  a  fire  for 
warmth's  sake.  When  he  was  cold  in  the  house  he  went 
out  of  doors  to  get  warm.  The  house  was  a  place  for 
storing  food  and  keeping  one's  belongings  from  the  wet. 
To  hide  in  it  from  the  weather  would  be  to  lay  a  false 
stress  on  its  function. 

The  climate  of  California  is  especially  kind  to  child- 
hood and  old  age.  Men  live  longer  there,  and,  if 
unwasted  by  dissipation,  strength  of  body  is  better  con- 
served. To  children  the  conditions  of  life  are  particularly 
favorable.  California  could  have  no  better  advertisement 
at  some  world's  fair  than  the  visible  demonstration  of  this 

—  8- 


"A  misty  camp 
of  mountains 
pitched 
tumultiioifslj-." 


California 

and  the  Calif ormans. 

fact.  A  series  of  measurements  of  the  children  of  Oakland 
has  recently  been  taken,  in  the  interest  of  comparative  TheEaster» 
child  study;  and  should  the  average  of  these  for  different  ^^^  ^^^ 
ages  be  worked  into  a  series  of  moulds  or  statues  for  com- 
parison with  similar  models  from  Eastern  cities,  the 
result  would  surprise.  The  children  in  California,  other 
things  being  equal,  are  larger,  stronger,  and  better  formed 
than  their  Eastern  cousins  of  the  same  age.  This  advan- 
tage of  development  lasts,  unless  cigarettes,  late  hours,  or 
grosser  forms  of  dissipation  come  in  to  destroy  it.  A 
wholesome,  sober,  out-of-door  life  in  California  invariably 
means  a  vigorous  maturity. 

A  third  element  of  charm  in  California  is  that  of  per- 
sonal freedom.  The  dominant  note  in  the  social  devel- 
opment of  the  state  is  individualism,  with  all  that  this 
implies  of  good  or  evil.  Man  is  man,  in  California:  he 
exists  for  his  own  sake,  not  as  part  of  a  social  organism. 
He  is,  in  a  sense,  superior  to  society.  In  the  first  place, 
it  is  not  his  society;  he  came  from  some  other  region  on 
his  own  business.  Most  likely,  he  did  not  intend  to  stay; 
but,  having  summered  and  wintered  in  California,  he  has 
become  a  Californian,  and  now  he  is  not  contented  any- 
where else.  Life  on  the  coast  has,  for  him,  something  of 
the  joyous  irresponsibility  of  a  picnic.  The  feeling  of 
children  released  from  school  remains  with  grown  people. 
"A  Western  man,"  says  Dr.  Amos  Griswold  Warner,  **  is 
an  Eastern  man  who  has  had  some  additional  experiences." 
The  Californian  is  a  man  from  somewhere  or  anywhere  in 
America  or  Europe,  typically  from  New  England,  perhaps, 
who  has  learned  a  thing  or  two  he  did  not  know  in  the 
East,  and  perhaps  has  forgotten  some  things  it  would  have 


California 

and  the  Californians. 

been  as  well  to  remember.     The  things  he  has  learned 

There  is  elbow  relate  chiefly  to  elbow-room,  nature  at  first  hand,  and  "  the 

everybody.        Unearned   increment."     The  thing  he  is  most  likely  to 

forget  is  that  escape  from  public  opinion   is  not  escape 

from  the  consequences  of  wrong  action. 

Of  elbow-room  California  offers  abundance.  In  an 
old  civilization  men  grow  like  trees  in  a  close-set  forest. 
Individual  growth  and  symmetry  give  way  to  the  necessity 
of  crowding.  There  is  no  room  for  spreading  branches, 
and  the  characteristic  qualities  and  fruitage  develop  only 
at  the  top.  On  the  frontier  men  grow  as  the  California 
live  oak,  which,  in  the  open  field,  sends  its  branches  far 
and  wide. 

With  plenty  of  elbow-room  the  Californian  works  out 
his  own  inborn  character.  If  he  is  greedy,  malicious, 
intemperate,  by  nature,  his  bad  qualities  rise  to  the  second 
degree  in  California,  and  sometimes  to  the  third.  The 
whole  responsibility  rests  on  himself.  Society  has  no  part  of 
it,  and  he  does  not  pretend  to  be  what  he  is  not,  out  of  defer- 
ence  to  society.  •*  Hypocrisy  is  the  homagQ  vice  pays  to 
virtue,"  but  in  California  no  such  homage  is  demanded  or 
accepted.  In  like  manner,  the  virtues  become  intensified 
in  freedom.  Nowhere  in  the  world  can  one  find  men  and 
women  more  hospitable,  more  refined,  more  charming, 
than  in  the  homes  of  prosperous  California.  And  these 
homes,  whether  in  the  pine  forests  of  the  Sierras,  in  the 
orange  groves  of  the  south,  in  the  peach  orchards  of  the 
Coast  range,  or  on  the  great  stock  ranches,  are  the  delight 
of  all  visitors  who  enter  their  open  doors.  To  be  sure, 
the  bewildering  hospitality  of  the  great  financiers  and 
greater  gamblers  of  the  sixties  and  seventies  is  a  thing  of 

—  10  — 


California 

and  the  Californians. 

the  past.     We  shall  never  again  see  such  prodigal  enter- 
tainment  as  that  which  Ralston,  bankrupt,   cynical,  and  California 
magnificent,  once  dispensed  in  Belmont  Canon.     Nor  do   pro^„c1aiiTm 
we  find,  nowadays,  such  lavish  outgiving  of  fruit  and  wine, 
or  such  rushing  of  tally-hos,  as  once  preceded  the  auction 
sale   of   town    lots    in    paper    cities.       These    gorgeous 
"spreads"  were  not  hospitality,  and  disappeared  when 
the  traveler  had  learned  his  lesson.     Their  avowed  pur- 
pose was  **  the  sale  of  worthless  land  to  old  duffers  from 
the  East.'*      But  real  hospitality  is  characteristic  of  all    y 
parts  of  California  where  men  and  women  have  an  income 
beyond  the  needs  of  the  day. 

To  a  very  unusual  degree  the  Californian  forms  his 
own  opinions  on  matters  of  politics,  religion,  and  human 
life,  and  these  views  he  expresses  without  reserve.  His 
own  head  he  **  carries  under  his  own  hat,"  and  whether 
this  be  silk  or  a  sombrero  is  a  matter  of  his  own  choosing. 
The  dictates  of  church  and  party  have  no  binding  force 
on  him.  The  Californian  does  not  confine  his  views  to 
abstractions.  He  has  his  own  opinions  of  individual  men 
and  women.  If  need  be,  he  will  analyze  the  character, 
motives,  and  actions  of  his  neighbor  in  a  way  which  will 
horrify  the  traveler  who  has  grown  up  in  the  shade  of  a 
libel  law. 

The  typical  Californian  has  largely  outgrown  provin- 
cialism. He  has  seen  much  of  the  world,  and  he  knows 
the  varied  worth  of  varied  lands.  He  travels  more  widely 
than  the  man  of  any  other  state,  and  he  has  the  education 
which  travel  gives.  As  a  rule,  the  well-to.do  Californian 
knows  Europe  better  than  the  average  Eastern  man  of 
equal    financial    resources,  and  the  chances  are  that  his 


California 

and  the  Californians. 

range  of  experience  includes  a  part  of  Asia  as  well.     A 
Provinciality     knowledge  of  his  own  country  is  a  matter  of  course.     He 

densely  ignor-  ' 

antofour  own  "as  no  Sympathy  with  **  the  essential  provinciality  of  the. 

vast  domain,  mind  which  knows  the  Eastern  seaboard,  and  has  some 
measure  of  acquaintance  with  countries  and  cities,  and 
with  men  from  Ireland  to  Italy,  but  which  is  densely 
ignorant  of  our  own  vast  domain,  and  thinks  that  all  that 
lies  beyond  Philadelphia  belongs  to  the  West.*'  Not  that 
provincialism  is  unknown  in  California,  or  that  its  occa- 
sional exhibition  is  any  less  absurd  or  offensive  here  than 
elsewhere.  For  example,  one  may  note  a  tendency  to  set 
up  local  standards  for  literary  work  done  in  California. 
Another,  more  harmful  idea  would  insist  that  methods  out- 
worn in  the  schools  elsewhere  are  good  because  they  are 
Californian.  This  is  the  usual  provincialism  of  ignorance, 
and  it  is  found  the  world  over.  Especially  is  it  character- 
istic of  centers  of  population.  When  men  come  into  con- 
tact with  men  instead  of  with  the  forces  of  nature,  they 
mistake  their  own  conventionalities  for  the  facts  of  exist- 
ence. It  is  not  what  life  is,  but  what  **the  singular  mess 
we  agree  to  call  life "  is,  that  interests  them.  In  this 
fashion  they  lose  their  real  understanding  of  affairs, 
become  the  toys  of  their  local  environment,  and  are 
marked  as  provincials  or  tenderfeet  when  they  stray  away 
from  home. 

California  is  emphatically  one  of  **  earth's  male 
lands,"  to  accept  Browning's  classification.  The  first 
Saxon  settlers  were  men,  and  in  their  rude  civilization 
women  had  no  part.  For  years  women  in  California  were 
objects  of  curiosity  or  of  chivalry,  disturbing  rather  than 
cementing  influences  in  society.     Even  yet  California  is 

-12- 


^  ^  3 

a  r.    ce 


California 

and  the  Californians. 

essentially  a  man's  state.  It  is  common  to  say  that  pub- 
lic opinion  does  not  exist  there;  but  such  a  statement  is  The  fooi-kiUer 
not  wholly  correct.  It  does  exist,  but  it  is  an  out-of-door  0° fn<^^/duai 
public  opinion, — a  man's  view  of  men.  There  is,  for  responsibmty. 
example,  a  strong  public  opinion  against  hypocrisy,  in 
California,  as  more  than  one  clerical  renegade  has  foundi 
to  his  discomfiture.  The  pretense  to  virtue  is  the  one 
vice  that  is  not  forgiven.  If  a  man  be  not  a  liar,  few 
questions  are  asked,  least  of  all  the  delicate  one  as  to  the 
**  name  he  went  by  in  the  states."  What  we  commonly 
call  public  opinion — the  cut-and-dried  decision  on  social 
and  civic  questions — is  made  up  in  the  house.  It  is  essen- 
tially feminine  in  its  origin,  the  opinion  of  the  home  circle 
as  to  how  men  should  behave.  In  California  there  is  little 
which  corresponds  to  the  social  atmosphere  pervading  the 
snug,  white-painted,  green-blinded  New  England  villages, 
and  this  little  exists  chiefly  in  communities  of  people 
transported  in  block,  —  traditions,  conventionalities, 
prejudices,  and  all.  There  is,  in  general,  no  merit 
attached  to  conformity,  and  one  may  take  a  wide  range  of 
rope  without  necessarily  arousing  distrust.  Speaking 
broadly,  in  California  the  virtues  of  life  spring  from  within, 
and  are  not  prescribed  from  without.  The  young  man 
who  is  decent  only  because  he  thinks  that  some  one  is 
looking,  would  do  well  to  stay  away.  The  stern  law  of 
individual  responsibility  turns  the  fool  over  to  the  fool- 
killer  without  a  preliminary  trial.  No  finer  type  of  man 
can  be  found  in  the  world  than  the  sober  Califomian;  and 
yet  no  coast  is  strewn  with  wrecks  more  pitiful. 

There  are  some  advantages  in  the  absence  of  a  com- 
pelling force  of  public  opinion.     One  of  them  is  found  in 

—  13  — 


The  Califor- 
nian  equal 
to  all 
emergencies. 


Caltfornia 

and  the  Californians, 

the  strong  self-reliance  of  men  and  women  who  have  made 
and  enforced  their  own  moral  standards.  With  very  many 
men  life  in  California  brings  a  decided  strengthening  of 
the  moral  fiber.  They  must  reconsider,  justify,  and  fight 
for  their  standards  of  action;  and  by  so  doing  they  become 
masters  of  themselves.  With  men  of  weak  nature  the 
result  is  not  so  encouraging.  The  disadvantage  is  shown 
in  lax  business  methods,  official  carelessness  and  cor- 
ruption, the  widespread  corrosions  of  vulgar  vices,  and 
the  general  lack  of  pride  in  their  work  shown  by  artisans 
and  craftsmen. 

In  short,  California  is  a  man's  land,  with  male  stand- 
ards of  action, —  a  land  where  one  must  give  and  take, 
stand  and  fall,  as  a  man.  With  the  growth  of  woman's 
realm  of  homes  and  houses,  this  will  slowly  change.  It  is 
changing  now,  year  by  year,  for  good  and  ill;  and  soon 
California  will  have  a  public  opinion.  Her  sons  will  learn 
to  fear ''the  rod  behind  the  looking-glass,"  and  to  shun 
evil  not  only  because  it  is  vile,  but  because  it  is  improper. 

Contact  with  the  facts  of  nature  has  taught  the  Cali- 
fornian  something  of  importance.  To  have  elbow-room  is  to 
touch  nature  at  more  angles;  and  whenever  she  is  touched 
she  is  an  insistent  teacher.  Whatever  is  to  be  done,  the 
typical  Californian  knows  how  to  do  it,  and  how  to  do  it 
well.  He  is  equal  to  every  occasion.  He  can  cinch  his 
own  saddle,  harness  his  own  team,  bud  his  own  grape- 
vines, cook  his  own  breakfast,  paint  his  own  house;  and 
because  he  cannot  go  to  the  market  for  every  little  service, 
perforce  he  serves  himself.  In  dealing  with  college  stu- 
dents in  California,  one  is  impressed  by  their  boundless 
ingenuity.     If  anything  needs  doing,  some  student  can  do 


14- 


for  gold. 


California 

and  the  Californians, 

it  for  you.  Is  it  to  sketch  a  waterfall,  to  engrave  a  por- 
trait, to  write  a  sonnet,  to  mend  a  saddle,  to  sing  a  song,  J^*^^ 
to  build  an  engine,  or  to  '*  bust  a  broncho,*'  there  is  some 
one  at  hand  who  can  do  it,  and  do  it  artistically.  Varied 
ingenuity  California  demands  of  her  pioneers.  Their 
native  originality  has  been  intensified  by  circumstances, 
until  it  has  become  a  matter  of  tradition  and  habit.  The 
processes  of  natural  selection  have  favored  the  survival  of 
the  ingenious,  and  the  quality  of  adequacy  has  become 
hereditary. 

The  possibility  of  the  unearned  increment  is  a  great 
factor  in  the  social  evolution  of  California.  Its  influence 
has  been  widespread,  persistent,  and,  in  most  regards,  bane- 
ful. The  Anglo-Saxon  first  came  to  California  for  gold  to 
be  had  for  the  picking  up.  The  hope  of  securing  some- 
thing for  nothing,  money  or  health  without  earning  it,  has 
been  the  motive  for  a  large  share  of  the  subsequent  immi- 
gration. From  those  who  have  grown  rich  through  unde- 
served prosperity,  and  from  those  who  have  grown  poor  in 
the  quest  of  it,  California  has  suffered  sorely.  Even  now, 
far  and  wide,  people  think  of  California  as  a  region  where 
wealth  is  not  dependent  on  thrift,  where  one  can  somehow 
**  strike  it  rich  '*  without  that  tedious  attention  to  details 
and  expenses  which  wears  out  life  in  effete  regions  such 
as  Europe  and  the  Eastern  States.  In  this  feeling  there 
is  just  enough  of  truth  to  keep  the  notion  alive,  but  never 
enough  to  save  from  disaster  those  who  make  it  a  working 
hypothesis.  The  hope  of  great  or  sudden  wealth  has 
been  the  mainspring  of  enterprise  in  California,  but  it  has 
also  been  the  excuse  for  shiftlessness  and  recklessness, 
the  cause  of  social  disintegration  and  moral  decay.     The 

—  15  — 


and  business. 


California 

and  the  Californians. 

"Argonauts  of  '49  *'  were  a  strong,  self-reliant,  generous 
Speculation  body  of  men.  They  came  for  gold,  and  gold  in  abund- 
ance. Most  of  them  found  it,  and  some  of  them  retained 
it.  Following  them  came  a  miscellaneous  array  of  para- 
sites and  plunderers;  gamblers,  dive-keepers  and  saloon- 
keepers, who  fed  fat  on  the  spoils  of  the  Argonauts. 
Every  Roaring  Camp  had  its  Jack  Hamlin  as  well  as  its 
Flynn  of  Virginia,  and  the  wild,  strong,  generous,  reckless 
aggregate  cared  little  for  thrift,  and  wasted  more  than  they 
earned. 

But  it  is  not  gold  alone  that  in  California  has  dazzled 
men  with  visions  of  sudden  wealth.  Orange  groves,  peach 
orchards,  prune  orchards,  wheat-raising,  lumbering,  horse- 
farms,  chicken-ranches,  bee-ranches,  seal-poaching,  cod- 
fishing,  salmon-canning,  — each  of  these  has  held  out  the 
same  glittering  possibility.  Even  the  humblest  ventures 
have  caught  the  prevailing  tone  of  speculation.  Industry 
and  trade  have  been  followed,  not  for  a  living,  but  for 
sudden  wealth,  and  often  on  a  scale  of  personal  expenses 
out  of  all  proportion  to  the  probable  results.  In  the 
sixties,  when  the  gold  fever  began  to  subside,  it  was  found 
that  the  despised  "cow  counties  "  would  bear  marvelous 
crops  of  wheat.  At  once  wheat-raising  was  undertaken  on 
a  grand  scale.  Farms  of  five  thousand  to  fifty  thousand 
acres  were  established  on  the  old  Spanish  grants  in  the 
valleys  of  the  Coast  Range  and  in  the  interior. 

The  working  out  of  most  of  the  placer  mines  and 
the  advent  of  quartz-crushing  with  elaborate  machinery 
have  changed  gold-mining  from  speculation  to  regular 
business,  to  the  great  advantage  of  the  state.  In  the  same 
manner  the  development  of  irrigation  is  changing  the  char- 

—  16  — 


«  -H  I 


California 

and  the  Californians. 

acter  of  farming  in  many  parts  of  California.     In  the  early 

days  fruit-raising  was  of  the  nature  of  speculation,  but  the  The  laws  of 

,,....,,  ...  ,     ,  economics  and 

spread  of  irrigation  has  brought  it  into  more  wholesome  the  fool  fruit^ 
relations.     To  irrigate  a  tract  of  land  is  to  make  its  product  k^o^^""- 
certain;  but  at  the  same  time  irrigation  demands  expendi- 
ture of  money,  and  the  building  of  a  home  necessarily 
follows.     Irrigation  thus  tends  to  break  up  the  vast  farms 
into  small  holdings  which  become  permanent  homes. 

On  land  well  chosen,  carefully  planted,  and  thriftily 
managed,  an  orchard  of  prunes  or  of  oranges  should 
reward  its  possessor  with  a  comfortable  living,  besides 
occasionally  an  unexpected  profit  thrown  in.  But  too 
often  men  have  not  been  content  with  the  usual  return, 
and  have  planted  trees  with  a  view  only  to  the  unearned 
profits.  To  make  an  honest  living  from  the  sale  of  oranges 
or  prunes  is  quite  another  thing  from  acquiring  sudden 
wealth.  When  a  man  without  experience  in  fruit-raising 
or  in  general  economy  comes  to  California,  buys  land  on 
borrowed  capital,  plants  it  without  discrimination,  and 
spends  his  profits  in  advance,  there  can  be  but  one  result. 
The  laws  of  economics  are  inexorable  even  in  California. 
One  of  the  curses  of  the  state  is  the  **  fool  fruit-grower,*' 
with  neither  knowledge  nor  conscience  in  the  management 
of  his  business.  Thousands  of  trees  have  been  planted  on 
ground  unsuitable  for  the  purpose,  and  thousands  of  trees 
which  ought  to  have  done  well  have  died  through  his 
neglect.  Through  his  agency  frozen  oranges  are  sent  to 
Eastern  markets  under  his  neighbor's  brands,  and  most 
needlessly  his  varied  follies  have  spoiled  the  reputation  of 
the  best  of  fruit. 

—  17  — 


San  Francisco 
and  those  that 
live  from 
hand  to 
mouth. 


California 

and  the  Californians. 

The  great  body  of  immigrants  to  California  have  been 
sound  and  earnest,  fit  citizens  of  the  young  state,  but  this 
is  rarely  true  of  seekers  of  the  unearned  increment.  No 
one  is  more  greedy  for  money  than  the  man  who  can 
never  get  any.  Rumors  of  golden  chances  have  brought 
in  a  steady  stream  of  incompetents  from  all  places  and  all 
strata  of  social  life.  From  the  common  tramp  to  the 
inventor  of  *'  perpetual  motions  "  in  mechanics  or  in 
Sociology,  is  a  long  step  in  the  moral  scale,  but  both  are 
alike  in  their  eagerness  to  escape  from  the  '*  competitive 
social  order  '*  of  the  East,  in  which  their  abilities 
found  no  recognition.  Whoever  has  deservedly  failed  in 
the  older  states  is  sure  at  least  once  in  his  life  to  think  of 
redeeming  his  fortunes  in  California.  Once  on  the 
Pacific  slope  the  difficulties  in  the  way  of  his  return  seem 
insurmountable.  The  dread  of  the  winter's  cold  alone  is 
in  most  cases  a  deterrent  factor.  Thus  San  Francisco,  by 
force  of  circumstances,  has  become  the  hopper  into  which 
fall  incompetents  from  all  the  world,  and  from  which  few 
escape.  The  city  contains  about  three  hundred  thousand 
people.  Of  these,  a  vast  number,  thirty  thousand  to  fifty 
thousand,  it  may  be,  have  no  real  business  in  San  Fran- 
cisco. They  live  from  hand  to  mouth,  by  odd  jobs  that 
might  be  better  done  by  better  people;  and  whatever 
their  success  in  making  a  living,  they  swell  the  army  of 
discontent,  and  confound  all  attempts  to  solve  industrial 
problems.  In  this  rough  estimate  I  do  not  count  San 
Francisco's  own  poor,  of  which  there  is  a  moderate  pro- 
portion, but  only  those  who  have  drifted  in  from  the  out- 
side. I  would  include,  however,  not  only  those  who  are 
economically  impotent,   but   also   those   who   follow   the 


-18- 


"While  from 
the  crags  leap 
full  throated 
streams." 


California 

and  the  Californians, 

weak  for  predatory  ends.  In  this  last  category  I  place  a 
certain  number  of  saloon-keepers;  a  class  of  so-called  when  men 
lawyers;  a  long  line  of  soothsayers,  clairvoyants,  lottery  or^fortune^ 
agents,  and  joint-keepers,  beside  gamblers,  sweaters,  pro-  with  closed 
moters  of  "medical  institutes,'*  magnetic,  psychical,  and  ^^^n^^lf^ 
magic  •'  healers,"  and  other  types  of  unhanged,  but  more 
or  less  pendable,  scoundrels  that  feed  upon  the  life-blood  of 
the  weak  and  foolish.  The  other  cities  of  California  have 
had  a  similar  experience.  Each  has  its  reputation  for  hos- 
pitality, and  each  has  a  considerable  population  which  has 
come  in  from  other  regions  because  incapable  of  making  its 
own  way.  It  is  not  the  poor  and  helpless  alone  who  are 
the  victims  of  imposition.  There  are  fools  in  all  walks  of 
life.  Many  a  well-dressed  man  or  woman  can  be  found  in 
the  rooms  of  the  clairvoyant  or  the  Chinese  "  doctor."  In 
matters  of  health,  especially,  men  grasp  at  the  most  unprom- 
ising straws.  In  one  city  lately  visited,  I  found  scarcely  a 
business  block  that  did  not  contain  at  least  one  human 
leech  under  the  trade  name  of  **  healer,"  metaphysical, 
electrical,  astral,  divine,  or  what  not.  And  these  will 
thrive  so  long  as  men  seek  health  or  fortune  with  closed 
eyes  and  open  hands. 

In  no  way  has  the  unearned  increment  been  more 
mischievous  than  in  the  booming  of  cities.  With  the 
growth  of  towns  comes  increase  in  the  value  of  the  hold- 
ings of  those  who  hold  and  wait.  If  the  city  grows  rap- 
idly enough,  these  gains  may  be  inordinately  great.  The 
marvelous  beauty  of  Southern  California  and  the  charm  of 
its  climate  have  impressed  thousands  of  people.  Two  or 
three  times  this  impression  has  been  epidemic.  At  one 
time  almost  every  bluff  along  the  coast,  from  Los  Angeles 

—  19  — 


Boomers 
and  the 
booms. 


California 

and  the  Californians. 

to  San  Diego  and  beyond,  was  staked  out  in  town  lots. 
The  wonderful  climate  was  everywhere,  and  everywhere 
men  had  it  for  sale,  not  only  along  the  coast,  but  through- 
out the  orange-bearing  region  of  the  interior.  Every  resi- 
dent bought  lots,  all  the  lots  he  could  hold.  The  tourist 
took  his  hand  in  speculation.  Corner  lots  in  San  Diego, 
Del  Mar,  Azusa,  Redlands,  Riverside,  Pasadena,  any- 
where, brought  fabulous  prices.  A  village  was  laid  out  in 
the  uninhabited  bed  of  a  mountain  torrent,  and  men  stood 
in  the  streets  in  Los  Angeles,  ranged  in  line,  all  night 
long,  to  await  their  turn  in  buying  lots.  Worthless  land 
and  inaccessible,  barren  cliffs,  river-wash,  sand  hills,  cac- 
tus deserts,  sinks  of  alkali,  everything  met  with  ready  sale. 
The  belief  that  Southern  California  would  be  one  great 
city  was  universal.  The  desire  to  buy  became  a  mania. 
•'Millionaires  of  a  day,"  even  the  shrewdest  lost  their 
heads,  and  the  boom  ended,  as  such  booms  always  end,  in 
utter  collapse. 

Mr.  T.  S.  Van  Dyke,  of  San  Diego,  has  written  of 
this  collapse:  *'The  money  market  tightened  almost  on 
the  instant.  From  every  quarter  of  the  land  the 
drain  of  money  outward  had  been  enormous,  and  had 
been  balanced  only  by  the  immense  amount  constantly 
coming  in.  Almost  from  the  day  this  inflow  ceased 
money  seemed  scarce  everywhere,  for  the  outgo  still  con- 
tinued. Not  only  were  vast  sums  going  out  every  day  for 
water-pipe,  railroad  iron,  cement,  lumber,  and  other 
material  for  the  great  improvements  going  on  in  every 
direction,  most  of  which  material  had  already  been 
ordered,  but  thousands  more  were  still  going  out  for  dia- 
monds and  a  host  of  other  things  already  bought — things  that 


-20- 


5  w  o 


^^  S 


SO  ^ 


California 

and  the  Californians, 

only  increase  the  general  indebtedness  of  a  community  by 
making  those  who  cannot  afford  them  imitate  those  who  Normal 
can.     And  tens  of  thousands  more  were  going  out  for  but-  ^^^  financial 
ter,  eggs,  pork,  and  even   potatoes  and  other  vegetables,   bubbles, 
which  the  luxurious  boomers  thought  it  beneath  the  dig- 
nity of  millionaires  to  raise." 

But  the  normal  growth  of  Los  Angeles  and  her  sister 
towns  has  gone  on,  in  spite  of  these  spasms  of  fever  and 
their  consequent  chills.  Their  real  advantages  could  not 
be  obscured  by  the  bursting  of  financial  bubbles.  By 
reason  of  situation  and  climate  they  have  continued  to 
attract  men  of  wealth  and  enterprise,  as  well  as  those  in 
search  of  homes  and  health. 

The  search  for  the  unearned  increment  in  bodily 
health  brings  many  to  California  who  might  better  have 
remained  at  home.  The  invalid  finds  health  in  California 
only  if  he  is  strong  enough  to  grasp  it.  To  one  who  can 
spend  his  life  out  of  doors  it  is  indeed  true  that  **  our 
pines  are  trees  of  healing,"  but  to  one  confined  to  the 
house,  there  is  little  gain  in  the  new  conditions.  To  those 
accustomed  to  the  close  heat  of  Eastern  rooms  the  Cali- 
fornia house  in  the  winter  seems  depressingly  chilly. 

I  know  of  few  things  more  pitiful  than  the  annual 
migration  of  hopeless  consumptives  to  Los  Angeles,  Pasa- 
dena, and  San  Diego.  The  Pullman  cars  in  the  winter 
are  full  of  sick  people,  banished  from  the  East  by  physi- 
cians who  do  not  know  what  else  to  do  with  their  incur- 
able patients.  They  go  to  the  large  hotels  of  Los  Angeles 
or  Pasadena,  and  pay  a  rate  they  cannot  afford.  They 
shiver  in  half- warmed  rooms;  take  cold  after  cold;  their 
symptoms  grow  alarming;  their  money  wastes  away;  and 

—  21  — 


One-lunged 
people  and 
juandlced 
hypochon- 
driacs. 


California 

and  the  Californians. 

finally,  in  utter  despair,  they  are  hurried  back  homeward, 
perhaps  to  die  on  board  the  train.  Or  it  may  be  that 
they  choose  cheap  lodging-houses,  at  prices  more  nearly 
within  their  reach.  Here  again,  they  suffer  for  want  of 
home  food,  home  comforts,  and  home  warmth,  and  the 
end  is  just  the  same.  People  hopelessly  ill  should  remain 
with  their  friends;  even  California  has  no  health  to  give 
to  those  who  cannot  earn  it,  in  part  at  least,  by  their  own 
exertions. 

It  is  true  that  the  **  one-lunged  people*'  form  a  con- 
siderable part  of  the  population  of  Southern  California. 
It  is  also  true  that  no  part  of  our  Union  has  a  better  popu- 
lation, and  that  many  of  these  men  and  women  are  now  as 
robust  and  vigorous  as  one  could  desire.  But  this  happy 
change  is  possible  only  to  those  in  the  first  stages  of  the 
disease.  Out-of-door  life  and  physical  activity  enable  the 
system  to  suppress  the  germs  of  disease,  but  climate  with- 
out activity  does  not  cure.  So  far  as  climate  is  concerned, 
many  parts  of  the  arid  regions  in  Arizona,  New  Mexico, 
and  Colorado  as  well  as  portions  of  Old  Mexico  (Cuerna- 
vaca  or  Morelia  for  example)  are  more  favorable  than  Cali- 
fornia, because  they  are  protected  from  the  chill  of  the  sea. 
Another  class  of  health-seekers  receives  less  sympathy 
in  California,  and  perhaps  deserves  less.  Jaundiced 
hypochondriacs  and  neurotic  wrecks  shiver  in  the  Cali- 
fornia winter  boarding-houses,  torment  themselves  with 
ennui  at  the  country  ranches,  poison  themselves  with 
* 'nerve  foods,"  and  perhaps  finally  survive  to  write  the 
sad  and  squalid  **  truth  about  California."  Doubtless 
it  is  all  inexpressibly  tedious  to  them;  subjective  woe  is 
always  hard  to  bear — but  it  is  not  California. 


22- 


=        c 

3  'x 


•     •    •       » 


California 
is  intensely 


California  '•^  ^  ;*, 

and  the  Californians. 

There  are  others,  too,  who  are  disaffected,  but  I  need 
not  stop  to  discuss  them  or  their  points  of  view.     It  is   Life  in 
true,  in  general,  that  few  to  whom  anything  else  is  any- 
where possible  find  disappointment  in  California.  American 

With  all  this,  the  social  life  is,  in  its  essentials,  that 
of  the  rest  of  the  United  States,  for  the  same  blood  flows 
in  the  veins  of  those  whose  influence  dominates  it.  Under 
all  its  deviations  and  variations  lies  the  old  Puritan  con- 
science, which  is  still  the  backbone  of  the  civilization  of 
the  republic.  Life  in  California  is  a  little  fresher,  a  little 
freer,  a  good  deal  richer,  in  its  physical  aspects,  and 
for  these  reasons,  more  intensely  and  characteristically 
American.  With  perhaps  ninety-five  per  cent  of  identity 
there  is  five  per  cent  of  divergence,  and  this  five  per  cent 
I  have  emphasized  even  to  exaggeration.  We  know  our 
friends  by  their  slight  diff'erences  in  feature  or  expression, 
not  by  their  common  humanity.  Much  of  this  divergence 
is  already  fading  away.  Scenery  and  climate  remain,  but 
there  is  less  elbow-room,  and  the  unearned  increment  is 
disappearing.  That  which  is  solid  will  endure;  the  rest 
will  vanish.  The  forces  that  ally  us  to  the  East  are  grow- 
ing stronger  every  year  with  the  immigration  of  men  with 
new  ideas.  The  vigorous  growth  of  the  two  universities  in 
California  insures  the  elevation  as  well  as  the  retention  of 
these  ideas.  Through  their  influence  California  will  con- 
tribute a  generous  share  to  the  social  development  of  the 
East,  and  be  a  giver  as  well  as  a  receiver. 

To-day  the  pressure  of  higher  education  is  greater  to 
the  square  mile,  if  we  may  use  such  an  expression,  than 
anywhere  else  in  our  country.  In  no  other  state  is  the 
path   from  the  farmhouse  to  the  college  so  well  trodden 


Sure  of 
themselves, 
fearless  of 
the  future. 


Cal-i/in^nia:  \  . 

and  the  ^Caltjornians. 

as  here.  It  requires  no  prophet  to  forecast  the  educa- 
tional preeminence  of  California  for  the  basis  of  intellec- 
tual development  is  already  assured.  But  however  close 
the  alliance  with  Eastern  culture,  to  the  last  certain 
traits  will  persist.  California  is  the  most  cosmopolitan  of 
all  the  states  of  the  Union,  and  such  she  will  remain. 
Whatever  the  fates  may  bring,  her  people  will  be  tolerant, 
hopeful,  and  adequate,  sure  of  themselves,  masters  of  the 
present,  fearless  of  the  future. 


24 


Syracuse,  N.  Y. 
Stockton.  Colif. 


CD25bOEbMt 


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